


chosen time

by oryx



Category: GARO (TV), GARO: Makai Senki
Genre: Fluff, Multi, Pining, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-11
Updated: 2016-01-11
Packaged: 2018-05-13 06:34:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5698552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oryx/pseuds/oryx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A wedding, and what happens after.</p>
            </blockquote>





	chosen time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [VaguelyDownwards](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VaguelyDownwards/gifts).



> ty for prompting my self-indulgent ot4!! finally gave me the motivation to stop procrastinating & write something for them (although i, uh. still procrastinated a lot & it ended up shorter than i intended. such is life)  
> this isn't exactly what you asked for in your prompt but hopefully it's still suitable ;;

The weddings of Makai Knights tend to be subdued affairs.  
   
Not that Leo has been to many himself. His cousin’s as a child, and an acquaintance’s a few years back. He supposes there _could_ be exceptions.  
   
But it’s difficult to imagine a Makai Knight wedding as anything other than modest, formal, quiet. It comes with the job, really – empty chairs at empty tables and all that. Most Knights are missing at least one parent, if not both, and any other family members tend to be scattered to the wind. Friends, too, tend to be few in number. Not much time for cultivating relationships in this line of work. (And the mortality rate hangs like a dark cloud above it all, the sobering thought that tomorrow could easily be your last day.)  
   
This, Leo thinks as he glances around the room, might be the most crowded Makai Knight wedding ever held. Almost fifteen people in attendance. A testament to the power of Saejima Kouga, he supposes – his strange ability to draw people in and keep them together.  
   
“Quite the event, isn’t it?” a voice says.  
   
He glances up to find Suzumura Rei standing next to him, observing the other people in the room with a critical eye, and Leo promptly loses his train of thought. He’s never seen Rei in anything other than his Knight attire, but here he is in a plain black suit jacket, white dress shirt unbuttoned just enough to reveal that silver necklace beneath. His hair is longer than it was when Leo last saw him – long enough to pull back in a messy bun, a few strands still falling across his face. He raises an eyebrow and Leo looks away, clearing his throat awkwardly.  
   
“Right, yes,” he says. “I… apologize for staring. You just… look very different, Rei-san.”  
   
Rei settles into the seat next to him with a quiet laugh. He’s still wearing his glove, of course; Silva seems to have been polished just for the occasion.  
   
“Can’t really show up to a wedding in what I typically wear, can I?” He glances over at Leo thoughtfully. “You clean up pretty nice yourself.”  
   
Leo looks down at himself, smoothing the creases in his pant leg, feeling suddenly self-conscious. He’d debated and debated over the formal Makai Priest robes hanging in the back of his closet before giving up and going the suit and tie route. It _is_ the twenty-first century, after all. Those stuffy old traditions have long since gone out of fashion. But somehow, under Rei’s intense stare, even _this_ feels overdressed. His tie is suddenly much too tight around his neck.  
   
“The young man just complimented you, Leo,” Eruba says, with a disapproving ‘tsk.’ “You should say ‘thank you.’ I didn’t raise you to have such poor manners, now did I?”  
   
Leo sighs, swallowing down the obvious retort of “you’re a ring, you didn’t raise me at all.” Even as a child, back when Eruba decorated his father’s hand instead of his own, he had learned that talking back to her was never a good idea.  
   
“Did you hear that, Zero?” Silva is saying. “ _Manners_. Perhaps Leo will lend Eruba to you for a little while, so that she can teach you some.”  
   
“Don’t ask for the impossible, Silva,” Rei says, with a sunny but distracted smile, his attention clearly elsewhere. Leo follows his gaze to the front of the room, where Kouga is speaking with the official from the Senate. He’s in full Knight regalia – sword at his side, formalwear on underneath his usual coat, which seems brighter than ever before, a dazzling white, its magic undoubtedly purified in advance.  
   
He seems to sense their eyes on him, as he turns to nod in Rei’s direction, and then to Leo as well, who feels his pulse jump a bit at the gesture, ducking his head in return. There are moments when Kouga’s quiet intensity still manages to throw him off balance.  
   
“He looks happy,” Rei says.  
   
Leo blinks. He looks back again and –  
   
He’s right. A year ago Leo wouldn’t have been able to tell, but now he can see it, in the relaxed slope of Kouga’s shoulders and the softness around his eyes and the way his wrist lies gently, without a hint of tension, against the hilt of his sword.  
   
“Well,” Rei continues. “Who wouldn’t be, getting to marry such a cute girl?”  
   
He’s got that usual lilt to his voice, that usual sly smile, but there’s something about it that seems forced, Leo thinks. There’s something weary and resigned about the way Rei is holding himself, so different from the casual confidence Leo is used to seeing. He debates whether he should ask what’s wrong, but the Senate official steps forward then, motioning that the ceremony is about to begin, and Leo hastily bites back those words.  
   
It goes off without a hitch, in the end.  
   
Kaoru looks beautiful as Gonza walks her down the aisle – her dress and veil all in shades of blue, the traditional colour for the brides of Makai Knights. (Here is a memory: Mio, standing in front of a floor-length mirror, holding up his mother’s wedding dress and smiling at her reflection. The tips of her ears turning red when she notices him in the doorway, hastily signing _I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have, it was just so pretty_. An ache in his chest as he tells her it’s alright – )  
   
The vows are archaic, the shape of the words heavy and strange even for those trained as Priests, but Kaoru doesn’t falter even once. She must have practiced for days, Leo thinks, with a sudden rush of affection.  
   
The exchanging of the rings, the kiss… Leo’s throat feels bit tight as he watches, which of course is only logical. If he can’t get somewhat sentimental at the wedding of two dear friends, then when can he? They are a lovely couple, after all. He’s always thought so. Always admired the way they balanced each other out – Kouga’s quiet stoicism offset so perfectly by Kaoru’s smiles, the way her presence brightens a room.  
   
After a ceremony, it’s customary to give one’s blessing to the newlyweds. Amidst the quiet chatter of the other guests, Leo stands off to the side and observes Rei and Kaoru and Kouga together, watching without meaning to out of the corner of his eye. Rei, kissing Kaoru’s hand with an overdramatic flourish, and the way she laughs and curtsies in return. Rei, with his usual coyly amused smile as he and Kouga shake hands, and the way they seem to linger like that, just a bit longer than a handshake rightly should.  
   
When his turn comes, Leo fumbles around for the metallic pendant in his pocket and presses it into Kaoru’s hand.  
   
“There’s a spell woven into it,” he says, as she holds it up to the light, watching the movements of its delicate, intricate gears. “For happiness. I’m sure you won’t need something like that to be happy, but… It used to be a bit of a custom in my family. To make one of those for someone whenever they were taking a step forward.”  
   
“Aww, Leo,” Kaoru says, biting her lip, grip tightening around the pendant. “I don’t even know what to say?”  
   
She steps forward to hug him instead, and Leo freezes in place. It’s considered very improper for a bachelor like himself to be this close to the bride on her wedding day. He’s fairly sure he can feel the Senate official glaring daggers at the back of his head. But Kaoru’s face is pressed against his chest and her palms are warm against his back and he can’t help but return the hug, just a little.  
   
(When she breaks away he has to force himself not to pull her back.)  
   
“Thank you,” Kouga says. His hand comes to rest on Leo’s shoulder, and there’s a hint of a smile curving his lips, something that Leo isn’t used to seeing just yet.  
   
“No,” Leo says, and swallows hard. “It’s no trouble at all.”  
   
Rei is halfway into a hefty slice of Gonza’s homemade wedding cake when Leo returns to his side.  
   
“Y’know, usually I’m good about these things,” he says, pausing and tapping his fork against his plate thoughtfully. “But I really haven’t been able to figure you out. Which one of them are you in love with, exactly?”  
   
Leo starts, turning to stare at him with wide eyes, alarm bells going off somewhere in the back of his mind.  
   
“Don’t tell me it’s _both_ ,” Rei continues. He raises an eyebrow, and when he receives nothing but panicked silence in reply he huffs out a disbelieving laugh. “It _is_ , isn’t it? Man. You’re something else, you know that?” And here his easy smile falters, eyes focused on the pair across the room. “You’d have to be a special kind of idiot, to be in love with both of them and go to the wedding anyway.”  
   
Leo blinks.  
   
Oh, he thinks. So that’s how it is.  
   
“You – ” he starts to say, but Rei cuts him off.  
   
“Interested in getting out of here?” He glances over at him expectantly, licking a dab of icing off of his thumb. “We’ve said our piece, after all. No real reason to stick around.”  
   
‘Getting out of here.’ Between Rei’s tone and the look in the eyes, Leo isn’t so naïve that he doesn’t understand the implications there, and he can feel a flush working its way up the back of his neck.  
   
“Back in my day we never would’ve left a wedding before it was properly over,” Eruba says with a ‘hmph.’ “And for something less than wholesome, I presume? Really, Leo, if your dearly departed father could see you now – ”  
   
He claps his free hand over Eruba’s mouth to stifle her.  
   
“Alright,” he says, the words slipping out before he has time to overthink. “Let’s go.”  
   
Rei finishes his last bite of cake with a smile that’s almost genuine.  
   
  
   
  
   
Rei’s apartment is sleek, modern, sparsely decorated – nothing like the cluttered old room (more like a storage closet) in the back halls of the Senate that Leo has been inhabiting for the past however-many years.  
   
“You live here alone, then?” he says, peering at the tools and supplies for motorcycle repair lining the nearby shelf. The entire place smells faintly but not unpleasantly of motor oil.  
   
“I like my space,” Rei says, and Leo can almost hear the half-hearted shrug in his voice. “And better here than that gloomy mansion.”  
   
That’s right. Leo forgets, sometimes, that Rei is like him – the heir to an old and powerful Makai family, with little left to show for it other than their armor and an empty house slowly falling into ruin. He’d last visited the mansion while searching for Sigma’s whereabouts, and found nothing there other than cobwebs and sad memories. It’s wasteful, he supposes, to leave the place vacant and purposeless, but the idea of someone else living there sets his teeth on edge.  
   
Rei’s hand on his arm brings him back to the present, turning him around and tugging him closer.  
   
“You didn’t come here to talk about boring things, did you?” he says, smiling up at him, and Leo can feel nervousness prickling at his skin. What was he thinking, coming here like this? This is all so out-of-character – too bold, too hasty. Maybe Rei would understand if he just –  
   
Rei slides a hand up to palm the back of his neck, then, fingers curling in his hair as he kisses him, and all the thoughts vanish inexplicably from his mind.  
   
  
   
  
   
He’s heard it said that gossip fades, that people are quick to forget one scandal and move on to the next, but in his experience the opposite is true just as often. Particularly in the world of Makai Knights and Priests, whose numbers seem to dwindle more and more with each passing year, and who rely so heavily on the teachings of the past. What is there for them to do but remember?  
   
The Fudou family tree in the Hall of Records has long since been updated – himself marked as the heir to Roudo, and Sigma’s name blackened away with a searing curse. He’s spent the past year keeping his head down, improving his inventions and accepting whatever minor tasks are assigned to him without complaint. And yet still people seem to regard him oddly. They avoid eye contact when he speaks to them, and give him a wide berth when he passes them in the corridors.  
   
The Senate was never the most hospitable place to live, but lately it’s started to wear on him.  
   
The Knights are the only ones who don’t treat him differently these days, and so he’s found himself drifting towards the more sociable of them. There’s a young knight named Rouki who comes to him for equipment repairs, and sometimes even a patch job for his injuries (despite Leo’s protests that he’s not a healer, really), but today he surprises him by placing a parcel, neatly wrapped in a pastel handkerchief, on his workbench.  
   
“A lady outside the west entrance asked me if I knew you,” Rouki says, with a bemused expression. “She wanted me to give this to you.”  
   
Leo frowns and unwraps the parcel to reveal a homemade lunch, a card on the top saying “Have a nice day!” next to a tiny, intricate drawing of Roudo’s helmet.  
   
“She looked really… normal,” Rouki is saying. He raises an eyebrow. “Not like a Priest or anything. How’d you get to – ”  
   
But Leo is already hastily excusing himself and heading for the door.  
   
The west entrance leads out to a stretch of riverside path, infrequently-used by civilians due to the gnarled, overgrown trees that block out most of the sunlight. Leo is breathing heavily as he emerges from the gate – his inactivity as of late has been affecting him – and he glances around, not having much hope of catching her, and yet –  
   
She’s still there, meandering down the path with her hands clasped behind her, seemingly captivated by the sun shadows that pattern the sidewalk.  
   
“Kaoru-san!”  
   
She glances over her shoulder and her eyes brighten. “Oh, Leo!” Her smile turns sheepish as he jogs up to meet her. “You didn’t have to stop working on my account, you know. I wanted to just drop in and visit you, but… I guess you need a Madou Tool to get through that door?” She taps her chin thoughtfully. “I really should’ve asked Kouga to explain it.”  
   
“No,” Leo says, a little too vehement. “No, it’s – I don’t mind. Thank you. For the lunch, I mean.”  
   
“It’s Gonza’s handiwork,” Kaoru admits. “I’ve kind of accepted that my cooking will never be anywhere as good as his.”  
   
She’s wearing the pendant, Leo notices. The gears at the heart of it are still ticking, a steady and meticulous rhythm, which means the spell hasn’t worn off yet, thankfully. With luck it never will.  
   
“How is married life?” he asks. He left Eruba back in the workshop, but she’d probably be nagging him to ask polite questions about now.  
   
“It’s… about the same,” Kaoru says, and looks a bit taken aback by her own answer. “I guess you just grow up thinking that your wedding day is where your whole life changes. Kind of odd to think that nothing really has. Not that that’s a bad thing,” she adds with a smile, and they settle into companionable silence for a moment.  
   
“Leo… Have you heard from Rei recently?”  
   
He blinks down at her, tensing up a bit at the mention of that name.  
   
“I’m starting to get a little worried, honestly,” she continues, brow knitting together. Her fingers twist the hem of her skirt. “I haven’t heard anything from him since the wedding. Usually we text each other at least once a week, but… lately he hasn’t been responding.”  
   
“Text?” Leo echoes.  
   
Kaoru laughs, taking something from her bag – a cellphone, with an assortment of colourful charms hanging from it – and holds it up for Leo to see. “You know, texting? Modern technology?” She shakes her head. “I should get you a phone too, Leo. It can be so hard to get in contact with you people.”  
   
He could go on a long, impassioned rant about how unreliable “modern technology” is, but on the other hand he can see Kaoru’s point. The world around them is changing. Perhaps, someday soon, Makai society will be forced to stop living in the past.  
   
(Leo’s not sure if he wants to be around to witness _that_ transition.)  
   
“I think,” he says carefully, “Rei-san might be trying to put some space between himself and the two of you.”  
   
“Hmm?” Kaoru tilts her head to the side. “Why’s that?”  
   
“Ah. Well, it’s…”  
   
“You know something I don’t, don’t you?” Kaoru leans in a little closer, a glint of sly amusement in her eyes. “I saw you two leave the wedding together, you know. Are you friends now or something? Or maybe… more than friends?”  
   
Leo clears his throat. “Please don’t joke about things like that, Kaoru-san.”  
   
“Right, right, sorry. _Dating_ would be much too improper for our sweet little Leo.”  
   
He’s being teased, of course, but the way she says “our” makes something twist inside him nonetheless.  
   
He’s beginning to understand why Rei is keeping his distance.  
   
  
   
  
   
“I have new orders for you, Leo,” Lady Grace says. “It seems your assistance has been personally requested. By the Golden Knight.”  
   
Leo stares up at her.  
   
“That’s – by Kouga-san?” The words _are you sure?_ are right there on his tongue, but he bites them back. Kouga has always seemed to embody the concept of “I work alone.” For him to go out of his way to request Leo’s help… It’s either worrying or flattering. Leo can’t quite decide which.  
   
Lady Grace nods, and for a brief moment her smile – which is usually so placid and dispassionate – seems to have some real emotion behind it.  
   
“Eruba has been provided with directions. Be careful, Leo. And good luck to you.”  
   
The directions in question lead to an abandoned office building overlooking the river, the place sitting empty just long enough for creeping plants to begin winding their way up its walls. Kouga is already outside, peering intently through the gaps in the chainlink fence as he cases the situation. The building’s oppressive aura is tangible even from this distance, and when Leo looks closely he could swear he sees a shadow pass across one of the third story windows. So the Horrors aren’t even bothering to hide themselves, then. That will make their job easier.  
   
“Kouga-san.”  
   
He turns to look at Leo and inclines his head in acknowledgment, wasting no time with pleasantries. All business, as usual. “I’ve been trailing a Horror for a few days now,” he explains. “I fought with it last night, but it managed to retreat into this nest to gather its strength. It seems far more intelligent than any I’ve come across lately.” A pause. “I apologize for calling you out without warning like this.”  
   
“Oh, no,” Leo says. He waves a hand as if to dismiss the thought. “It’s… nice to be relied on, honestly. Though I’m not sure why you’d ask for me?”  
   
“A Priest who can transform is doubly useful,” Kouga says matter-of-factly, and draws his sword to cut away the chain across the gate, his blade little more than a quicksilver blur. The rusty metal falls to the pavement with a clang.  
   
Ah, Leo thinks, disappointment tugging at him. So that’s it –  
   
“And,” Kouga continues, an uncharacteristic awkwardness to his voice, “I am… comfortable working with you.”  
   
He pushes the gate open and steps through, then, and Leo blinks at his retreating figure for a moment before hurrying to follow after, feeling strangely warm as he does so. Out of all the praise he’s ever received in his life, Saejima Kouga being comfortable with him makes the rest seem somehow insignificant.  
   
Their path through the building is relatively unobstructed at first. Kouga effortlessly cuts down the few minor Horrors they come across, and Leo places purifying talismans along every stretch of wall. And yet, as they make their way down hallway on the second floor, a bizarre kind of unease begins to set in.  
   
“Something feels off,” he says, reaching out to grab Kouga by the wrist without thinking.  
   
“I agree,” Zaruba chimes in. “There’s something wrong with this place, Kouga. We should’ve reached the next flight of stairs already.”  
   
“Some sort of impossible space, then?”  
   
“Please leave this to me, Kouga-san,” Leo says, and steps forward with his brush held out in front of him. Just as he thought, there’s an explosive trap laid for them as well. Lure the enemy into a state of frustration and panic with the building’s impossible layout, which in turn lowers their guard. Kouga was right – this Horror is far more intelligent than what Leo is used to.  
   
Dismantling the trap takes only a few brushstrokes, but tearing down the illusion is far more complex. Halfway through and Leo can hear himself breathing, sweat beading on his forehead, the power that’s channeling through his brush draining his strength little by little. _A year ago and this would’ve been no trouble at all_ , he thinks. He really has allowed himself to get soft.  
   
The illusion finally breaks with an audible _crack_ , the image of the hallway in front of them splintering like a sheet of glass and collapsing into a thousand shards. With it gone, they find themselves standing directly in front of the stairwell to the next floor, and Leo can’t help but laugh tiredly.  
   
“Sorry,” he says, turning back to Kouga with a weak smile. “I should’ve been able to – ”  
   
“Leo, get down!”  
   
He barely has time to blink as Kouga comes hurtling at him, bowling him over, both of them slamming hard into the opposing wall. Leo glances over Kouga’s shoulder in shock to see a minor Horror, claws raking through the empty air of the place he was just standing. Practically without thinking, he flips his brush into his free hand and fires off a destructive spell, the Horror dissipating into a wisp of smoke.  
   
His second thought is that he really should’ve been stunned by the impact, until he realizes that Kouga’s hand is cradling the back of his head. They lock eyes and stay that way for a moment, Leo more than a little conscious of the closeness.  
   
And then Kouga is getting to his feet and pulling Leo along with him, back to his businesslike demeanor as he brushes the dust off his coat.  
   
“Um, thank you,” Leo says, clearing his throat awkwardly. “For just now.”  
   
“You broke through the illusion just now, didn’t you?” Kouga says. “No need for thanks.” His hand closes around his sword hilt as he stares up into the dark third floor stairwell. “Let’s go.”  
   
The Horror that Kouga was tracking is an ugly thing, even by Horror standards – all teeth and angular limbs and sharp, jutting bone. After what they went through to get here neither of them are willing to risk it escaping again. Kouga looks over at him with a nod, and they summon their armor in unison.  
   
(Normally Leo feels out of place behind Roudo’s helmet. He still hasn’t quite accepted it as part of himself – this thing that shouldn’t have been his to begin with. But today, in this moment, it somehow feels right.)  
   
“Dinner, a week from now,” Kouga says later, as the two of them stand on an empty street corner, preparing to go their separate ways.  
   
“… Sorry, what?”  
   
“Kaoru wanted me to invite you. Although she also wanted me to tell you that ‘you’re not allowed to refuse.’ Those were her exact words.” He hesitates for a second, his expression without any of its usual guardedness, as if there’s something else he wants to say but can’t quite bring himself to.

“Good night,” is what he says in the end, turning away with a swish of his coat.

Leo watches him until he turns the next corner and vanishes from sight.  
   
  
   
  
   
He’s steeling himself to knock on the door when he’s startled by the thudding rumble of a motorcycle engine. He glances back to find Rei pulling up, cutting the ignition and dismounting gracefully, giving his bike an affectionate pat as he does so.  
   
“What, you got invited too?” he says as he joins Leo on the front stoop. “I was feeling all special and everything.”  
   
Leo stares at him. “Rei-san… I’m surprised you would come.”  
   
“Well, Kaoru did say that attendance was mandatory. I’m not about to shirk my orders.”  
   
“You’re shirking orders right now,” Silva says, a knowing smile in her voice. “You were supposed to be giving an assignment briefing ten minutes ago.”  
   
He lifts Silva up to glare at her in mock offense. “And I thought _you_ were supposed to be on my side.”  
   
“I always am, Zero.”  
   
The front door swings open, then, a beaming Gonza beckoning them inside, and Leo’s inexplicable nervousness returns full force, twisting his stomach into knots. Something about this visit feels oddly decisive.  
   
“You know, it feels like ages since the two of you were last here, Leo-sama, Rei-sama,” Gonza is saying, bowing and indicating towards the sitting room. “They’ll be so pleased that you both could make it. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll fetch some tea for everyone.”  
   
He turns to walk away, humming faintly to himself, and Leo and Rei exchange a glance. It’s a bit unnerving, really, how happy Gonza gets when he knows something they don’t.  
   
Kaoru and Kouga appear to be in the middle of an intense discussion when they enter the sitting room. He’s clearly on the defensive, twisting his wedding ring as he shakes his head, and Kaoru lays a hand on his forearm coaxingly, saying something too soft and quiet to hear –  
   
She notices the two of them out of the corner of her eye and turns with a bright smile.  
   
“Ah, good, you’re here! I was… a little worried that you wouldn’t show up, honestly, so this is… Yeah. This is good.” She takes a deep breath, and Leo can’t help but notice that she’s twisting her wedding ring as well. (There’s something strangely adorable about a shared nervous habit.)  
   
“This, ah, might seem a little sudden,” she says. “But I think I should just come out and say it. Kouga and I have been talking, and… we were wondering if maybe the two of you might like to come live here? In this house, I mean. With us.”  
   
They all stand there in silence for a long moment, the ticking of the clock overloud as it counts out the seconds.  
   
“… Come again?” Leo says, in a voice that’s thin and strained.

“I guess this _is_ pretty out of nowhere,” Kaoru muses out loud. “But it makes sense, don’t you think? You two are really important to us, even if Kouga won’t admit it.” (He makes a ‘hmph’ noise as if to prove her point.) “And it feels like we’ve all been growing apart lately, and I just… I think it’d be so much better, if we all could be together more often.”

Leo glances over at Rei to find his vague smile looking decidedly forced.

“Kaoru-san!” Leo blurts out. “We should go help Gonza with the tea!”

She gives him a bewildered look as he takes her by the hand and pulls her out of the room, shutting the door behind them as quietly as possible, as if the slightest noise might set something off.

“I really don’t think this is a good idea,” he whispers, turning to face her. He realizes he’s still clutching her hand and drops it with a jolt.

“Hmm? Why not?”

Leo bites his lip. “It’s probably not my place to say this, but… Rei-san, he. Ah. Seems to have some _feelings_ for – ”

“For Kouga, right?”

He opens his mouth and then closes it again.

“I told you before, didn’t I?” she says, and there’s an amused glint in her eyes. “I notice things. Well. Maybe not everything. But at least when it comes to you three, nothing gets past me.” Her self-satisfied smile fades a bit, replaced with something much more thoughtful. “Ever since they met they’ve been dancing around each other, trying to pass it off as a ‘rivalry’ first, and then a friendship, but… I could always tell there was something else.”

“… You mean, Kouga-san…?”

“Feels the same? Yeah. I’m sure he does. I don’t think he’d ever admit it out loud, though. You know how he is.” A thought seems to occur to her, then. “Y’know… He seems to have a bit of a thing for you too, Leo. I’m guessing that’s mutual?”

“That’s – ” he starts to say, but can’t quite finish his train of thought. Kouga… towards him? He’d call it impossible, but then he thinks back to last week, to “I’m comfortable working with you,” to Kouga’s palm warm against the back of his neck, and maybe. Maybe.

“I’ve thought about it a lot,” Kaoru is saying. “And I’m alright with it. The idea of,” and here ducks her head, looking a bit embarrassed, “sharing him. I just… want everyone to be happy. You grow up without much in the way of family, and you just. Start to think that maybe it would be better. To have everyone you love all together, no matter what. You know?”

Leo’s chest aches. He lifts a hand, about to reach out to her, but is distracted by the sound of raised voices from the next room. Kaoru hurries over to gently open the door, just enough so that the two of them can peer inside. Rei’s fingers are curled in Kouga’s shirt collar, his other hand drawn back as if a fight were about to break out, but when he throws a punch Kouga catches his fist easily.

It’s a bizarrely intimate moment, somehow. They’re standing far closer than anyone rightly should in such a situation, and Leo wonders if he should be watching this. He steps back, leaning against the opposite wall and sinking down. This, he thinks, is all a bit much to take in.

Kaoru crouches down next to him with a reassuring smile. “Well, they’ll get there,” she says. “Neither of them are very good with emotions. I kind of thought they might fight for real, so I guess this is progress, maybe? I wonder – ”

“Kaoru-san,” Leo says, interrupting her. “You know it’s not just Kouga, don’t you? It’s you, too.”

For a moment it seems like she doesn’t catch his meaning, until suddenly her eyes widen. Her hand, poised to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, goes very still.

“Obviously,” a voice says, and they both look up to find Rei leaning in the doorway, eyebrow raised. “Really, Kaoru-chan. You’re always telling me how ‘observant’ you are, too. Only when it doesn’t involve you, I guess?”

She glances back and forth between them, her surprise and disbelief fading away gradually into laughter.

Around her neck, Leo notices, the pendant keeps ticking.


End file.
